


Regulations State

by Truth



Category: Spriggan
Genre: M/M, Sex
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2007-04-24
Updated: 2007-04-24
Packaged: 2017-10-14 06:52:56
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,840
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/146579
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Truth/pseuds/Truth
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Male bonding through time in the showers.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Regulations State

**Author's Note:**

> Written for [](http://community.livejournal.com/yaoi_challenge/profile)[**yaoi_challenge**](http://community.livejournal.com/yaoi_challenge/)

Comradeship is that feeling of closeness that springs up between you and your fellows in times of danger and great stress. Within ARCAM, a sense of camaraderie was very important... within the ranks of the Spriggan, possibly even more so. You could go months without seeing a fellow agent, only to be thrown together under conditions of extreme danger and then be expected to go back to your day to day life without a second glance.

You learn to trust and appreciate the intimate strangers whose lives depended on your own. Time spent watching each other's back, emotionally invested in the death and survival of people you barely knew, tended to forge some interesting relationships.

“You have still got a lot to learn.”

The tone of Jean’s voice stung and Yu paused before setting the heavy grenade launcher down to be checked back into ordinance. “I did well enough,” he protested.

Jean snorted, setting a pistol and a pair of knives down beside Yu’s grenade launcher. “’Well enough’? That’s a new term for careless behavior.”

Yu turned, staring up at the tall blond. “Careless?”

“You’d prefer ‘sloppy’?” Jean gave him a critical look. “One of these days you’re going to get us both killed.”

That stung too, not least because today’s brief excursion out into the high tundra had gone very badly indeed and it _had_ been Jean’s sudden appearance that had kept Yu’s small party from being slaughtered after Yu himself had been drawn into an ambush. Not that Yu hadn’t managed to extract himself, with maximum prejudice and damage to the attempted ambushers, but he’d arrived back to find Jean quietly cleaning up in the middle of a scene of extreme carnage. The scientists had spent the entire encounter huddled in the lee of an arrangement of giant stones and had, thankfully, not lost a single man, but Jean had not been pleased and Yu couldn’t blame him for that. Still….

“Are you saying you would have ignored an ARCAM distress call? It could’ve been a survivor from the last group!” Yu pointed out, temper rising.

“I’m saying I would’ve waited for back-up.” Jean turned away, already peeling out of his jacket.

It was true and Yu _should_ have waited, but the signal had been so weak, he’d been afraid of losing it completely. The entire business turned out to be a very carefully staged trap and only Jean’s intervention had kept him from losing his party – which would have been the _third_ to disappear in that area. Having Jean continue to harp on it, however, did nothing for his state of mind.

“And if it hadn’t been a trap?” Unable to let go, he followed Jean into the locker room. Yu couldn’t decide if he were angry or just hurt as he shrugged out of his own jacket and vest.

“Then people would have died.” Jean suddenly didn’t sound very happy himself, but with his back to Yu, it was impossible to tell. His voice echoed oddly in the small room, distorted by the tile walls on one side and the metal lockers on the other. “But I’d’ve kept _my_ party in one piece.”

“That’s unfair.”

Jean did glance over his shoulder then. “ _Life’s_ not fair and you know that as well as I do.”

Yu gave him an angry, tight-lipped scowl, letting his jacket and vest land on one of the benches beside the lockers. “You were there… and I wasn’t wrong.”

“I won’t always be there to save your ass, and betting other people’s lives on the possibility…?”

“That’s not what I meant!”

Jean didn’t respond immediately busying himself with the rank of showers, turning several up to full heat in an attempt to pull truly hot water from them more quickly. The chipped tiles and the occasional stain beneath one of the showerheads spoke eloquently as to the age of this room, the installation… and the boilers which fed the water supply into the antique plumbing.

Hands clenched into tight fists, Yu finally lost patience. Stepping between the jets of water as they slowly increased in volume and heat, he took Jean’s shoulder and _pulled_. The older man turned easily into the pull, his own hand coming up and striking away Yu’s hold.

“You meant that because you managed to pull an improbable solution out of your ass this time, that it’s certain to happen again?” Jean bared his teeth at Yu in the parody of a smile. “You’re supposed to follow the _rules_ , remember? Regulations state….”

The punch that Yu aimed at his midsection didn’t connect as Jean took a swift step backward. Warm water sluiced down, darkening his hair and shirt as he backed through the shower spray before twisting swiftly for a counter-attack. Unlike Yu’s blow, Jean’s sudden kick connected… as his booted foot slipped in a puddle of water. Both men went down, Jean landing heavily on his side as Yu also slipped, landing on his ass in another puddle.

Cursing, Jean shoved himself to a sitting position. “You never think before you act,” he accused.

There was no sting to the words this time, and Yu’s anger was somewhat dampened by the water seeping through his clothing as much as the change in Jean’s tone. Rubbing gingerly at the hot, dull pain in his side that would’ve meant cracked ribs on a less _sturdy_ individual, he pulled himself to his feet. “I think,” he protested, scowling. “And I’m hardly alone in the ‘suicidal last stand’ category, hypocrite.”

Jean sneered at him, rubbing his hip and grimacing as he also stood, one hand against the now water-slick tile. “At least I don’t break the rules to get there.” He paused, mentally reviewing the sentence as Yu began to laugh.

“So it’s all right as long as you follow regulations on how to properly get yourself killed?”

Aiming a cuff at Yu’s ear, Jean was unsurprised when it was dodged, the younger man already in movement. Fast strike and counter-strike were closer to playful this time, and Yu ended up pinned against the stained tiles, directly under one of the now-steaming jets of water. It wasn’t _quite_ a surprise when Jean bit him, the barest graze of teeth against the nape of his neck.

“Regulations,” Yu told him, voice echoing faintly against the tile as he bit back a laugh, “frown on….”

Jean interrupted him by the simple expedient of letting go; releasing his hold on Yu and stepping forward to hold the younger man against the wall with only the weight of his own body. As Yu reached to push himself away from the water-warmed tiles, Jean took advantage of that as well, hands dropping to drag Yu’s sodden shirt free, hands surprisingly cool against the skin beneath.

Always competition, always rivalry – even when it was completely friendly, as it rarely was, and Yu turned to face Jean. Booted feet slipping slightly in the puddled water, he didn’t bother with the thin fabric of Jean’s shirt, stretched taught by the weight of the water, fingers going directly to his belt. Yu’s attempts to work the belt free were somewhat hampered by finding himself again pinned to the wall.

He didn't care. This wasn't about comfort or anger or anything save relief. They'd gotten the job done and they'd lived through the experience. Restless energy and adrenaline needed an outlet and it wasn't the first time they'd turned to each other, or to another Spriggan. It was a close-knit group, for all that they were scattered across the globe and rarely saw each other save when trusting each other with their lives as all hell broke loose around them.

Water pounded down heavily, not truly impeding their attempts to find skin and causing their clothing to catch and stick as steam billowed around them. Yu set his shoulders against the tiles, face turned up into the welcome heat, eyes closed as he worked Jean’s pants open. The hands beneath his shirt crawled upward as Jean ducked his head, tongue dragging up Yu’s exposed throat. This time, the set of teeth was no mere scrape – becoming a heavy pressure just beneath the corner of his jaw. Breath catching, Yu nearly inhaled a lungful of water and began to cough.

They were both laughing by the time Yu caught his breath again, hand sliding into the open front of Jean’s pants. The entire world had shrunk to heat and wetness, even the air seemed to have become full of water to the point where it was impossible to really breathe. Awkward and inconvenient, pressure and friction causing wet fabric to become heavier and more restrictive as they strained against each other; urgency demanded that there be no pause to strip away water-saturated clothes. Even with a common goal, they were rivals still as the echoes of their laughter died to be replaced by a low gasp and groan.

It was a competition with no loser, muscles knotting and hands pulling with increasing urgency as they ground against each other. Yu’s pants were down around his knees, Jean’s shoved only a few inches down his thighs, mostly concealed by the mist that was slowly filling the room even as Jean’s hands fisted in Yu’s soaked shirt hard enough to pull the seams.

All the stress and strain of the earlier carnage was spent between them with the pull of hands and grind of bodies, the heavy weight of the water pulling coarse fabric against sensitive skin. Yu's shirt was rucked up beneath his arms and the faint marks of nails and teeth stood out faintly against heat-flushed skin, sure to fade but still _felt_. One of his hands found a hold in Jean's hair and tangled there as they thrust against each other with a harsh, glorious abandon.

The echo of a low groan mingling with a sharp cry was muted by the sound of the water. Several minutes passed before the slap of wet clothing was followed by the more usual sound of water against bare skin and it was Yu who emerged from the steam first. Discarding an armful of completely soggy clothing into the narrow laundry hamper as he headed for his locker, Yu smiled. He snagged a towel and started to work the water out of his hair.

“Still think I was being unfair?” Jean’s voice was almost drowned out by the sound of water and the muffling clouds of steam.

Yu paused, towel over his head, and heaved a resigned sigh. Too many of his reactions were still knee-jerk, running along the lines of 'do something _now_ ' and he still made mistakes. Of course, so did Jean, but Jean always seemed to walk away from the carnage, or at least stagger - sometimes _carrying_ Yu. “… no.”

Hands buried in long blond hair, eyes closed against the suds, Jean couldn’t hear him… but he didn’t have to. With a faint smile, he concentrated on his shower. Yu always came around in the end.

“… but you’ve still got a lot to learn.”


End file.
